Presently, there are several types of disposable surgical gowns being offered to the medical community. The surgical gowns of the most recent known art attempt to resolve the problem of fluid penetration or "strikethrough" of the fabric of the gown, while retaining air permeability and flexibility for maintaining a sufficient comfort level for the surgeon.
Strikethrough of blood, serum or the like has become a major concern in recent years. Because the arms and the front of the body of the surgeon are the most susceptible to strikethrough, special efforts are made to enhance these areas with a higher degree of fluid impermeability.
Typical of the known background art are the patents listed in the following table.
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor Date ______________________________________ 3,011,172 D. Tames December 5, 1961 4,171,542 L. A. Cox October 23, 1979 4,408,357 M. A. Toth October 11, 1983 4,504,977 M. K. King March 19, 1985 4,586,196 R. N. White May 6, 1986 ______________________________________
U.S. Pat. No. 3,011,172 discusses a surgical gown with moisture proof conductive grounding means. The gown itself is made entirely of a lightweight material such as linen, cotton or the like. A panel of a moisture proof, electrically conductive material, such as synthetic rubber made electrically conductive by carbon impregnation, is sewn into the upper front portion of the front panel. The only portion of the gown that is fluid resistant is the portion of the front panel where the moisture proof panel is located.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,542 describes a surgical gown with a bib forming a hand support. The bib is attached to the inside of the gown's front panel, with slits cut into the gown front for access to the hand support. The bib is constructed of a fluid impervious film that is adhered to the inside of the front panel such that there is a pocket for the hand support. This portion of the gown is air and fluid impermeable.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,408,357, 4,504,977 and 4,586,196 discuss disposable surgical gowns with zones that are fluid resistant and zones that are air permeable for the comfort of the surgeon. The '357 patent is comprised of a front panel, two back panels and sleeves, the sleeves of which are fabricated from a water repellant material, the back panels are fabricated from an air permeable material and the front panel can be fabricated from either the material used for the sleeves or the material used for the back panel.
The '977 patent describes a zoned surgical gown wherein a front portion, the central operative region, of the front panel and the lower half of the sleeves are water resistant. The remainder of the gown is fabricated from a lightweight air permeable material. The lower half of the sleeves are comprised of a layer of a base sleeve material and a layer of a water-repellant, air porous nonwoven fabric web.
The '196 patent teaches a gown in which the back panels and the upper portion of the sleeves are highly air permeable, the front panel and lower portion of the sleeves are fluid impermeable.
The known background art attempts to solve the problems of fluid resistance while maintaining air permeability for comfort to the surgeon. To attain a high degree of fluid impermeability in the surgical gown, comfort to the surgeon is often relinquished and no alternatives are supplied to relieve the problems that result such as perspiration or inflexibility due to treatment of the material for fluid impermeability.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a disposable surgical gown which provides comfort to the surgeon through highly air permeable materials.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a surgical gown which provides an absorbent layer to absorb perspiration where the air permeability of the material is reduced.
It is yet a further object of this invention to provide such a surgical gown that provides a flexible material that is also fluid impermeable.
Still, a further object of this invention is to provide such a surgical gown which provides overall protection to the surgeon from penetration of blood and other fluids to the body of the surgeon.
A further object of this invention is to provide such a surgical gown which provides an absorbent layer which hinders fluids from dripping down the gown and onto the surgeon's shoes or the floor.